Megliola: An electric, clutch victory

Thursday

May 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 29, 2008 at 5:56 AM

These teams deserve each other. This is bad for your ticker, but good if you like your playoff hoops served up thick and raw. Kendrick Perkins morphed into Wilt Chamberlain, Ray Allen turned into, well, Ray Allen. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce played themselves. And it all worked out. Barely.

Lenny Megliola

These teams deserve each other. This is bad for your ticker, but good if you like your playoff hoops served up thick and raw.

In a game about as tense as you can take it, the second half of Celtics-Pistons, Round 5, was thick with plot and drama. The Celtics seemingly had control - they were up 17 with 1:19 to go in the third quarter and 15 in the final quarter. In the end, Boston just had enough to withstand everything the Pistons had to dish out.

So it's Game 6 in the Palace tomorrow night, the Celtics looking for the clincher after a 106-102 win thoroughly earned at the rockin' Garden.

"It was electric," said Allen, who hit two free throws to make it 104-101. Then Detroit's brash rookie Rodney Stuckey made one of two at the line to make it a two-point game.

It took the last two of Garnett's 31 points to seal it with 3.4 left. "When you take free throws at the end of the game, you want to be poised and calm," said Garnett.

The fourth quarter took forever and it seemed to drain the players. They had to put fatigue out of their minds. "I was thinking about winning the game and moving closer to the NBA Finals," said Pierce, who finished with 16 points.

Allen scored 29, and was 5-for-6 of 3-pointers, squashing his slump. "When he plays like that, we're a full team," said Garnett.

That went for Perkins (18 pts, 16 boards) and Rajon Rondo (13 assists). Full team indeed. "I said I was going to be aggressive on offense," said Perkins, "and play with a lot of energy. I was going to leave it all on the floor."

"Huge game," said Pierce. "We know how hard it is to win in Detroit."

The Truth was a little disappointed in the way the Celtics played in the fourth quarter (31-22, Detroit). "If we get in a situation in Detroit (like this), we've got to control it a little big better."

The onus is on all the players in the playoffs, but there will always be one or two who are burdened more by expectations. Garnett fits that description. He was the main reason the Celtics had the kind of season they had. After 18 playoff games his resume was impressive. He didn't play All-World every night, but he was pretty damn good.

Well, until Game 4 in Detroit. That night, all the Celtics seemed to be in the throes of a malaise. Much of the rap for the defeat landed at the feet of Garnett, the sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer. As Garnett would say, and he often does, "it is what it is."

Garnett has been shadowed by whispers that when a game came down to crunch time he didn't exactly stand tall. Now, here he was, in his first Boston season, and just like that the Celtics make it to the conference finals. And if he didn't step up in what remained of this series, his piece of the blame pie won't be bite-sized.

It is what it is.

Last night, Kevin Garnett came up L-A-R-G-E.

Depending on who you talk to, Celtics fans have a wide range of ideas regarding what constitutes an acceptable outcome to the season, no matter how it ends. First of all, no one would have settled for the Celtics just making the playoffs just because they missed out the previous two seasons. Out of the question. Making the playoffs but bowing out in the first round? Out of the question. Ousted in the second round? Unacceptable.

Here's where it gets tricky. Some fans I talked to during the season said they'd settle for the Celtics making it to the Eastern Conference Finals. That would be marked improvement. Others were more specific. A guy told me he could accept them getting beat in the conference finals if it went seven games.

Then there are the really hard markers. Some felt the Celtics had to get to the Finals before they'd be praised. And there are people who won't be satisfied unless banner 17 gets hoisted next fall.

Well, Game 5 of the Eastern finals is done, and we still don't know where this series is going.

This was for sure. The winner last night would get two chances to close it out. The Celtics now have the luxury of seeing "Game 7, if necessary" in the morning newspapers. It would be played here of course.

It might have to come down to that. A game 7. Just because these guys are who they are.

Lenny Megliola is a MetroWest Daily News columnist. His e-mail is lennymegs@aol.com

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